The power of the internet!

THE much heralded and much damned interweb has been a boon for and the bane of politicians.

As the evidence from the US proved, a well run online campaign can lead to electoral victory.

But when the political chips are stacked against a politician, or that politician is mired in a ‘scandal’ the world wide web becomes a voracious beast, sucking up rumour and innuendo; a place where leaks can be contrived or accidental.

The name of Iris Robinson’s alleged teenage lover was online well before Spotlight aired, and mainstream media stories are trailed before the prints roll.

All this heralds the dawn of a new age for politics in Northern Ireland: in previous years a spin doctor had only political correspondents and the corridor gossip of Stormont to contend with.

Now they have to deal with the great unwashed even when there’s no election afoot!

Which means that there are potentially hundreds of thousands of people who can freely express their views and opinions at all hours of the day; people who can pass on stories within seconds; and people who can spread allegations before lawyers have woken up.

While the risk of these allegations finding their way into court always exists, the damage to a politician can be extensive before the courts or mainstream media have considered the story.

So, we may have dawning upon us the age when a spin doctor’s job is to co-ordinate responses, monitor blogs and forums and generally make sure his party masters have a strategic presence and plan for the world wide web.

Look forward to advertisements reading “communications officer required; must be a political anorak and a web geek”.

Planning upheaval…and it’s not RPA

FOR years local councils have had a consultative voice in the planning process.

The plan under the Review of Public Administration is for planning to become the responsibility of local councils.

There already were some question marks against the new 11 councils taking over planning, but against the context of the furore surrounding Iris Robinson’s alleged access to property developers’ cheque books the entire planning process has come under the spotlight.

A recent meeting of the Assembly’s environment committee concluded that it needed to write to the DUP Environment Minister about what role the committee should have in any investigations into the controversy surrounding the Robinson issue.

Which can only lead to a reasonable person to ask how many investigations are needed? Westminster, the Assembly Ombudsman, Castlereagh council…is this a case of investigation envy.

Of course, it isn’t just the Robinson family that has been hitting headlines. The Adams family has had its share of unwelcome time under the glare of the media spotlight, with allegations of unreported allegations against Liam Adams, brother of Sinn Féin party leader Gerry Adams.

Ian Paisley Junior has asked the Assembly Ombudsman to investigate whether Gerry broke any rules. Sure what’s another investigation among friends? After all, if policing and justice is devolved, our MLAs will need something to talk about.

DUP cash payback secret

THE DUP has decided not to say how much their MPs had to pay back in Parliamentary expenses.

The SDLP, Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionist MPs on the other hand have all divulged how much they’ve coughed up in re-payment of expenses.

Seven of the nine DUP Parliamentarians were asked to re-pay money in the wake of the Legge Review, but just how much each have re-paid has not been revealed.

One wonders why not? Conspiracy theorists feel free to fill any blanks…or call the Nolan Show.

We don’t need no education…

LET’S all just pack it in when it comes to education. There’s no point anymore.

The folks who hang out at Parliament Buildings can barely agree what day of the week it is, let alone sort out our education system.

The latest debacle sees claims that there will be meltdown as the legislation to create the body that will replace the education and library boards will not be passed in time. This means there will be no legislatively recognised organisation to do the mundane stuff…you know like hiring teachers, organising repairs to schools damaged by vandalism.

Of course, this, like the chaos over the post-primary transfer, is nobody’s fault. Sinn Féin say it is the DUP’s fault. The DUP say it is Sinn Féin’s fault. The UUP, SDLP and Alliance parties aren’t really sure whose fault it is, but it sure as hell wasn’t their fault!

Imagine you are a child or young person, who has teachers helping them through lessons supporting them and when needed disciplining them. On the commute to school or listening to the news with parents that child would be well justified in asking when teacher is going to instill a little discipline amongst our MLAs.

And those steps leading up to the big house….well you could fit all 108 of them on to the naughty steps. Schoolchildren can harangue the elected representatives until they agree to at least agree on one thing, just one thing before being allowed back into the playroom, sorry chamber.

McGreevy murder – the problem with policing and justice

The trouble with attempting to have your cake and eating it is that the crumbs make a terrible mess. So it is with Sinn Féin. Endorsing policing at a regional level, but still playing to community reservations about how reformed the police actually are, ends up with no one being particularly happy.

Policing and justice are things that ideally one shouldn’t attempt to equivocate about. Just as you can’t be half pregnant you can’t support the police in theory, turn a blind eye to the existence of the IRA Army Council, and express reservations about aspects of policing on the ground.
By doing so Sinn Féin has caused itself two problems. Unionist politicians have found their stance to be reason enough (rightly or wrongly) to block the devolution of policing and justice. Sinn Fein have rattled the cage over this but short of bringing down the institutions there is very little they can do about it.

The bigger problem presented by their ambiguous stance is the growth of disquiet amongst the nationalist electorate about perceived ‘lawlessness’ in certain areas of Northern Ireland.
No one under estimates the difficulty for Sinn Féin, given its history, in giving its full stamp of approval to policing in NI but the public expressions of support that leading members of the party have given have not yet been enough to persuade – an understandably sceptical population – to fully engage with the PSNI to combat crime in West Belfast and South Armagh.
Perhaps only time will change things because short of Gerry Adams physically accompanying the PSNI on patrol it is difficult to see what else Sinn Féin can do to convince nationalist residents in places like West Belfast to help the police.

Likewise perhaps only time (and the ‘disbandment’ of the Army Council?) will convince unionists to agree to the devolution of policing and justice. Indeed we may have to wait until a new raft of post Troubles politicians come forward in Sinn Féin and the DUP for this to happen successfully.